1. Field of Invention
The invention pertains to materials and methods for polymer curing, particularly adhesive curing and bonding, and more particularly to methods for using energy conversion and photoinitiator chemistries in applications where access to an external light source is not available and/or where bonding without a coefficient of thermal expansion mismatch is desirable.
2. Discussion of the Background
Thermosetting polymers and adhesives are well known and are used for a wide variety of applications. One particularly important application domain is in the field of microelectronics assembly, where thermoset adhesives are used to bond bare die to substrate, establish conductive contacts, and perform various roles in packaging and sealing structures such as glob-top and die-underfill structures. Commercially available materials are formulated to meet various requirements, and in addition to the monomer(s) may contain particulate fillers such as metal, oxides, or dielectric powders, as well as various additives to control thermal conductivity, viscosity and other properties. The materials are typically dispensed as a thixotropic fluid in precise locations, and after all the parts are placed, the entire assembly is heated to a temperature necessary to polymerize the monomers or crosslink resins.
As modern electronic components evolve to smaller sizes, and integrated circuits include ever-smaller features such as ultra-shallow junctions, the permissible thermal budget during assembly continues to decrease. New memory device technologies, for example, incorporate phase-change materials that are temperature sensitive and may need to be assembled using low-temperature processing. Similarly, polymer composites used for dental restorations must be cured without subjecting the patient to high curing temperatures. To address these issues, many photo-curing polymer systems have been developed. In general, these systems employ at least one photoinitiator, which, when exposed to UV light, releases chemical energy to form free radicals or cations to initiate the reaction of the monomers at substantially ambient temperatures.
The clear limitation of conventional photoinitiators is the need to have direct line-of-sight access to a suitable light source. This prevents the use of conventional materials for advanced processes such as multilayer stacks of individual silicon dies, because there is no way to get the UV light into the interior of the stack.
Furthermore, the conventional UV curable adhesives cure from the outside surface of an adhesive bead to the inside of the adhesive bead; and, in most cases curing is accompanied by the formation of a skin. In the present invention curing is more controllable and can proceed across the entire volume of the adhesive bead.